Go to David in South Bend, Indiana, listening on Redeemer Radio.
David, you’re on with Karlo Broussard.
Hey, you guys.
Listen, first thing, thanks for what you do.
I listen most days, I enjoy, I learn, and I try to pass it on.
So here’s my question: I’ve got a couple of Protestant friends, we were talking recently,
“Once saved, always saved,” that came up, and in the context that one of their friends
had recently finally come back to church and been baptized, and [they] decided, “Well,
you know, we’re so relieved that he is now saved.”
And I gently brought up that, “Well, that’s great, that’s a great start.”
Well, that didn’t go over well.
So what I’m looking for—if it doesn’t involve Scripture, it’s not gonna get a
hearing—so I’m looking for two or three places I can go to say, “Well, let’s talk
about these passages as well as the one or two that you’ve got.”
Yeah.
So thanks, David, it’s a great question.
And we can break up this belief of “Once saved, always saved” into two parts, and
respond to both.
So if we take the former, the first part: “Once saved,” the idea that salvation
is a one-time event in the past, and nothing is left to be done.
Well, you can share passages such as this: passages that would suggest—or actually
prove—in Scripture that salvation is a process; but it’s not a one-time event in the past,
but there’s different dimensions.
So David, you could affirm your Protestant friends’ belief that, yes, there is an initial
stage of salvation where we initially come into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ;
where his life is infused within our soul; we’re justified; we’re in good standing
with God; we have His grace dwelling within us.
And that initial state in no way involves presupposed works.
There’s no way that we can merit the initial grace of salvation that moves the heart and
the mind to faith.
And the passage that’s familiar with your Protestant friends, David, would be Ephesians
2:8-9.
But if you notice, in that very text, David, you can always turn to—just go one verse
later to verse 10 of Ephesians 2, and St. Paul talks about how there are certain works
that God has prepared for us to walk in.
So we have that initial stage of salvation; but there’s also an ongoing process of salvation
which involves the works of charity that we need to perform.
You can also refer them to 1 Corinthians 1:18, David.
In 1 Corinthians 1:18, St. Paul writes, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who
are perishing, but to us who are being saved—” notice that’s a present participle there,
“being saved,” which indicates it’s a present state of salvation, an ongoing process.
And then finally—so we have our initial stage, we have our present stage, and then
there’s also a future dimension, a final salvation that the Bible speaks of.
So for example, in Matthew 10:22, Jesus himself says, “You will be hated by all men for
my name’s sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved.”
So as my mentor and friend and colleague Tim Staples likes to say, “We have been saved,
we are being saved, and we hope to be saved.”
So that deals with the “Once saved” part of the belief.
And then finally, David, the second part of course is “Always saved,” which indicates
this common Protestant belief of eternal security.
That “Once I’m saved, there’s nothing I could do to lose that grace of salvation.”
And David, all you really need to do is go to 1 Corinthians 4:3-4, where St. Paul himself
says, “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human
court; I do not even judge myself.”
So St. Paul is basically saying, “I’m not aware of any sort of sins that would take
me away from God and destroy God’s life in my soul,” but he says, “I don’t even
judge myself.”
And even—for example, Cy, in 1 Corinthians 9:27, St. Paul says that “I pommel my body,”
he puts his body under mortification, right?
Mortification of the flesh, we’re in the season of Lent, this is very appropriate.
Why?
He says, “lest I myself should become adokimos [ἀδόκιμος],” which is “disqualified.”
Or I actually might be confusing the Greek word there for “adokimos,” I’d have
to look at the Greek.
I might be thinking of another text.
But St. Paul literally says, “I myself should become disqualified,” literally, “a castaway.”
That is, separated from Jesus Christ.
So David, hopefully these passages will be helpful for you.
Once again, you want to attack the “Once saved” with that process, those different
stages of salvation, or dimensions; and then you want to attack the “Always saved”
by sharing with them those Bible passages that indicate St. Paul doesn’t even believe
in eternal security.
Thank you.
I hope that’ll give us something to chew on, and I’ll probably call back next week.
Well you do that, David.
We look forward to it, my friend.
And thank you very much for your kind words, David.